Fraser’s five star show drives West to end year with victory

Fraser Smeaton, seen scoring against RHC earlier in the season, got five tries at Perthshire.

Published:12:29Wednesday 23 December 2015

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West of Scotland ended the year on a high with a 46-21 win at Perthshire on Saturday in their final BT West Division 3 match of 2015.

Star of the show was No 8 Fraser Smeaton who scored no fewer than five of his side’s eight tries.

West put almost instant pressure on the home side with good ball retention and with only five minutes on the clock a foray into the Perthshire 22 eventually created a drive from which Smeaton broke off to record his first score.

In the swirling wind the conversion was missed, but an almost identical scenario five minutes later again saw Smeaton crossing the line, although again the conversion was missed.

Perthshire are a well drilled side and showed their quality shortly after with a good backs move resulting in prop Gary Holburn crossing the West line, Dom O’Conner converting.

Further misfortune for West accrued when Rory McKay breaking through to score under the posts with another O’Conner conversion making it 14-10 to the home side.

A series of repeated penalties by Perthshire saw the loss of Rory McKay to the bin and West took full advantage of this with two scrum drives near the home line.

One saw the irrepressible Smeaton again breaking off to score and in the second he didn’t even need to break off as the scrum was driven over the line. Both were converted by Blair Smith to take the half-time score to 24-14.

Having lost another player to the bin just before half-time, the home side started the second half with only 13 men.

West quickly took advantage with another scrum being driven on the home line and the ball touched down for the bonus point, Smeaton again coming up with the ball in hand. This time the conversion hit the post.

A further try for the visitors came shortly after with Sandy McCallum taking a quick penalty and veteran second row Calum Morrison finding his way to the line.

Scrum half Harry Brewster successfully took over the kicking duties to stretch the lead to 36-14.

Perthshire scored another try under the posts after excellent backs’ interplay, duly converted, but had no answer to West with captain Jamie McAulay and winger Drew Readie both crossing the whitewash.

With one of these converted the final score was 46-21 as West returned home happy for their well-earned Christmas break.